While the contact centre industry is a significant contributor to the global economy, there are relatively few works, which aim to provide practical guidance to managers, supervisors and advisors working in the field. In his third book, respected academic John P. Wilson aims to remedy this by providing a comprehensive handbook for training and development specialists working in the industry. The book draws on an extensive literature review together with Wilson's own experience as director of the European Leonardo Da Vinci: Call Centre Training and Knowledge Transfer project, and also includes contributions from writers with experience of call centre operations in the UK, Europe, China, India and the United States.
The book strikes a balance between academic rigour and practical advice, and contains a number of case studies which illustrate the topics under discussion and which may provide a source of ideas and comparisons for those designing learning programmes in their own organisations.
Each chapter addresses a specific theme and is logically ordered with clear signposting of the chapter aims, content and conclusions. In the first chapter, Wilson sets the scene with an overview of the range of learning and development issues faced by the contact centre industry. This is followed by a chapter on how to structure call centre training activities. This section stresses the need to link training to organisational objectives, and, also includes discussions on issues such as the duration, content and delivery of training.
The third chapter considers the competencies needed by contact centre advisors, and presents three tables drawn from research and the e‐skills contact centre career and skills framework. These provide an excellent overview of the area, and should be of use to practitioners who wish to draw up their own competency frameworks for use in recruitment or training. Following this, chapter four completes the picture with a discussion of the recruitment, induction and socialisation of new employees.
Chapters five and six mark a departure from the primarily structural debates of the previous chapters, and concentrate on practical communication and customer service skills. Like a later chapter on Emotional Intelligence, these sections provide a range of models, exercises and best‐practice suggestions that may provide useful content when designing training sessions on these topics.
Since much of the training in contact centres is performed by Team Leaders, chapter seven provides a short introduction to the techniques involved in coaching. This is followed by a chapter on “hard” system skills which emphasises the need to consider the learning and training cycles when providing technology training. While much of the material in this chapter will be familiar to experienced trainers, it is both unusual and refreshing to see technology training addressed so directly in a general handbook.
The remaining chapters of the book are more technical, and include a somewhat academic discussion of management development and a thought‐provoking discussion of the issues involved in communicating across cultures. The final chapter provides an overview of performance management and training evaluation, although it omits any discussion of the role of incentivisation and the positive and negative impacts that this may have on call centre performance.
The book is well researched and extensively referenced, and it represents an ambitious attempt to provide a comprehensive yet pragmatic guide to the topic area. However, the breadth of coverage does mean that some minor topics are treated only lightly and, in places, the book would benefit from tighter editing to ensure a more consistent balance between practicality and academic rigour. Additionally, since the key references pre‐date the current recession, the book contains no discussion of any pressures that may have been introduced as a result of the global economic downturn.
Taken as a whole, the book provides an authoritative overview of learning and development in this fast‐moving and dynamic industry. As such, contact centre trainers who wish to ground their work in solid research are likely to find much of interest and benefit in this book.
